[Footnote 87: I found this _condotta_ or engagement in the archives of the Albani Palace at Urbino. It is for six months from March, 1448, and stipulates for 3000 florins of monthly pay, for which the Count was to maintain 500 lances and 300 foot. Poggio says that his actual force was 1000 horse and 800 infantry.--MURATORI, _R.I.S._, XX., 420.] [Footnote *88: For Federigo's service under Sforza see ROSSI, _F. da Montefeltro condotto da F. Sforza_, in _Le Marche_ (Fano, 1905), an. V., p. 142. Rossi prints the Mandata.] [Illustration: _Alinari_ FRANCESCO SFORZA _From the XV. Century relief in the Bargello, Florence_] In honour of the Duke's exaltation, he had proclaimed a tournament at Urbino, which Sanzi assures us was preceded by omens of evil. In particular, his mother, influenced by a horrible dream, besought him on her knees to abandon the intention. Though a firm believer in astrology, his mind repudiated this superstition, which however diffused among all ranks a feeling of vague anxiety as the jousting day approached. Just then there arrived Guidangelo de' Ranieri, a gentleman of Urbino, who had gained the prize in a recent passage of arms at Florence; he was met at the city gates by the Count, who embraced him, placing on his neck the knightly guerdon of a golden chain. Being asked to run a course with him, Guidangelo would have excused himself, and is even said to have earned a sharp reproof for forbearing to touch him, in deference to the prevailing apprehension of some impending mishap. On repeating the course, the knight being mounted on a small charger, his lance, after striking Federigo's armour, glanced upwards, and was shivered against his vizor. He received the stunning blow between the eyebrows, where it shattered the bone of his nose and knocked out his right eye. Recovering himself, however, he kept his seat, and consoled those who flocked around in consternation, by assuring them of a speedy cure, and that one of his two good eyes remaining, he would still be able to see better than with a hundred ordinary ones. This courageous bearing was perhaps the best recipe, and his cure appears to have been rapid and easy; but the damage to his features may be presumed from subsequent portraits representing him in profile, which, whilst concealing the loss of his eye, exaggerated the prominence of his broken nose.[*89] [Footnote *89: For the war in Tuscany see ROSSI, _La Guerra in Toscana dell'anno 1447-8_ (Firenze, 1903).] CHAPTER VI Count Federigo enters the Neapolitan service--His two campaigns in Tuscany--Fall of Constantinople--Peace of Lodi--Nicholas V.--The Count's fruitless attempt at reconciliation with Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta; followed by new feuds with him--Death of his Countess Gentile.